Bale-tie buckle.



H. P. CHILDRESS.

BALE TIE BUCKLE. APPLICATION FILED APRIL 1914.

Patented Dec. 22, 191%.

W'ITNESSES ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENDERSON PIECE CHILDRESS, OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

BALE-TIE BUCKLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 22, 1914.

Application filed April 7, 1914. Serial No. 830,196.

To all whom it may concern:

3e it known that I, Hnuonnsou' P. CHIL- Diucss, av citizen of the United States, residing at Memphis, in the county of Shelby and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Bale-Tie Buckle, of which the following is a soecification.

This invention has reference to improvements in bale tie buckles, and its object is to provide a buckle to which the band may be expeditiously applied without liability of improper union of the band and buckle -and which when the buckle is subjected to the expansive force of a highly compressed bale becomes locked to the hand against disengagement therewith under the application of any force short of that causing a rupture of the buckle.

In accordance with the present invention the buckle is adapted for use with the ordinary fiat bale bands of strap iron or steel with the ends returned upon themselves to form loops encircling the opposite ends .of the uniting buckles, with the free ends of the loops against the bale. Such bale bands are known as tucked-in bale bands, where the free ends of the loops are covered by the main portion ofthe band, thereby avoiding'injury to other bales or articles or to the handlers of the bales from exposed ends of the bands. 1

The present invention has to do with a type of buckle 'made'of a piece of wire of suitable-gage bent into a substantially closed loop, of which one end constitutes a lapped entering end where the loops of the bale band may be introduced into the buckle, and then the expansive force of the tightly compressed cotton or othcrbalecloses the looped end to prevent the escape of the band.

. The present invention has to-do with the same general type of buckleshown and described in application No. 805,992, filed by me on December 1 1913, for improve" nieuts in bale tie buckles, and in said application claims are made to the broad. features which enter into the buckle of the present invention, so that with respect to such broader features no claim is made in this application, the claims in this case being limited to certain improvements represented by the present buckle over the buckles shown, described and claimed in the aforesaid application.

. In accordance with the present invention the terminal portions of the lapped parts of the entering end of the buckle are formed into return hooks; that is, these ends are bent upon themselves toward each other and toward the central portion of the buckle so as to overhang to a certain extent the portions of the lapped ends upon which they are formed, these hooks being directed toward the closed end of the buckle, that is, the end remote from the lapped end. Thus far the buckle is similar to the buckles shown and described in the aforesaid application, but the present buckle difiers from those shown in the said application in that the sides of the buckle are bent toward each other, so as to approach at the lapped end in a manner to carry the I hooked extremities toward the closed end of the buckle with the lapped portions crossing at an angle one to the rather. The

arrangement is such that when the buckle.

hasbeen applied to ohe end of the halo hand and the loop at the other end of the bale band is introduced into the buckle through the lapped ehd and the buckle is brought into alinement with the-two lapped ends of the bale band, the si'deedges of'the loop engage the approaching sides of the buckle as the said loopis moved toward the entering end, and as these approaching" sides are normally closer together than the width of the band, such approaching sides are caused to recede one from'the other,

thus drawing the hooked ends toward each other and into engagement with the side edges of the band with the return portions of the hooks overlying that face of the band at the loop then presented toward the closed end of the buckle;

"tion the return hooks not only engage the edges of the bale band, but override that face of. the bale band presented toward the inside of the buckle and no force can be applied to the bale band, in the direction extremities of the hooks 5.

lapped end, and then either the band or the-'- buckle' be so moved that the looped end 9 of the band is in encircling relation to the end bar 2 constituting the permanently closed end of the buckle. A

When the bale band is applied to a highly compressed bale with the buckle already in position with respect to the loop 9, the loop 10 of) the band is readily introduced into the buck e by being moved through one side of the lapped end, the natured spring of the buckle permitting it to yield sufiiciently for this purpose, and the introduction of the loop 10 is accomplished by turning the buckle on its center through an arc of about ninety degrees. Now, with the loop 10 of the band fully introduced into the buckle, the latter is rotated in the opposite direction until the band 9 encircles or houses the end member or bar 2, and the band 10 encircles or houses the lapped extensions 4 constituting the entering end of the buckle, but the loop 10 first enga 'es the approaching or curved sides 8 of the buckle at a short distance from the lapped ends but closer thereto than the When the pressure upon the bale is released the bale kid is extended'due to the swelling of the mile and the opposite edges of the loop 10 where encircling the entering end of the buckle are moved along the approachingportions 8 the sides 3, and thereby cause the sides to recede one from the other, and at the same time this causes the hooks 5 to approach one toward the other, but with their extreme ends closer to the closed end 2 than the looped end of. the bale band at the time. This position of the parts is indicated in Fig. 2, and it will be seen therefrom that the return hooks 5 are already partially overhanging the 0pposite edg' s ot the loop 10 of the band on the face or the loop 10 toward the closed end 2 of the buckle. As the expansion of the bale continues the lapped endot the buckle con,- tinues to spread because of the separatioi'i of the approaching ends of the sides 8 due to the action of the bale band thereon, and this action proceeds until the bases of the hooks 5 Where joining the extension '4 come into contact with the side edges, of the loop 10 of the halo band, and the extremitiesvof the hooks 5 are considerably closer together than the width of the bale band. Since the sides 3 of the buckle will then no longer separate, such movement being arrested by the engagement of the hooks 5 with the edges of the bale band, the expansive force of the bale is exerted in straightening out the sides 3 so that the bends S are in large part obliterated and the extensions l are brought into. close overlapping relation and a close approach to parallelism. .llOWYQI, the return bends of the hooks since these hooks are in acute angle relation to the extension l and are directed one toward the other, bring the free ends of the books into overriding rela tion to that face of the loop 10 of t ban toward the other or closed end of the ouckle. Now, the expansive force of the bale would in the absence of the hooks ter d to bend the extension i away from the closed'end 2 of the buckle, but this tendency is eil'ectually prevented by the overhanging ends of the hooks engaging around-the opposite edges of the bale band and oyerthat face of the band toward the closed end of the buckle. With such a buckle either the bale band or the buckle will rupture before the hooks will yield in the least to permit opening up of the buckle, and the escape of the band. return hooks embracing the sides and overhanging the face of the band form an tive and positive iocltbecoining autoniasi cally eliectire by the expansive force of the bale. -,Since it customary to make the buckles of relatively soft metal having so little inherent elasticity that such elasticity is negligible, the buckle readily holds its shape when once subjected to the great expansive :torco of the bale, and should the tension be relieved the buckle will still re-' similar to the showing of 1; that is, it.

is provided with an end bar 2 constituting the normally closed end of the buckle, side 3 each terminating-1' at the end remote from the bar in an'extension l, said cX- the buckle and overlapping as in Fig. l, and

each extension 4- terminates at the end resims 4: they are closer together than the length of the bar 2? and are also closer together thaiithe width of the bale band to tension l constiiatirg the other end bar of which the buckle is to be applied. The proportions are such that a bale band loop corresponding to the loop 10 of Figs. 1., 2 and 3 will engage the inner'cdges of the side bars at points sufiiciently close to the lapped cud oi": the buckle to be out of the Way or the approaching free ends of the acute angle hooks 5 as the sides 8' are pressed apart. The operation of the structure of F ig. 6 is in the main the same as that of Fig. 1 and the buckle assumes a slightly elongated and more nearly rectangular form shown in Fig. 7 when underthe full eX- pansive force of the bale, much the same as occurs with the structure of Fig. l, and the return hooks 5 lock over and aboutthe opposite edges of the loop 10 of the bale band in partial. overriding relation to that face of the band toward the closed end member or bar 2.

In Fig. 8 there is shown a bale buckle 1 similar to the structure of Fig. 6, and cornprising' an end bar 2*, side bars 3", extensions 4*, and rcturn hooks 5 with beveled portions 6*. The structure of F ig. 8 differs from that of Figs. 1 and 6 in that the side bars 3* are souieuhat longer and the extensions 4* have more nearly a right angular relation \i'ith respect to the side bars 3 than in Figs. 1 and (5. The structure of Fig. 8 when extended as shown in Fig. 9 forms a somewhat longer rectangle than'with .the buckles of the other figures, and, therefore, permits a somewhat greater elongation of the bale hand than with the structures of the other figures. The general operations and functions are, however, the same in all the various forms. v

Tho hooks 5i and 5 may be either straight or rounded from their root ends toward their free ends, and since these hooks should be return hooks, that is, should each overhangmore or less the extension carrying it, and each hook should be directed toward the other as well. as toward the center portion of the buckle loop in a direction toward the other or closed end of the loop, the term acute angie hook'is used as-descriptive of such a return hook whether the hook from its root portion to its point or extremity 'be straight or substantially straight or curved.

An important feature of the present invention is the construction of the sides of the loop of the buckle in that these sides approach toward the lapped end of the buckle to such an extent that the side bars of the buckle are less separated than the Width of the band to which the buckle is applied. The parts are so proportioned that as the band travels along these approaching sides of the buckle in --moving toward the lapped end of the buckle under the expansive force of a bale, the buckle is thereby so spread as to bring the return hooks at their root ends into side engagement with the side margins of the band, and at the same time the free ends of the acute angle hooks approach closer than the Width of the band into overriding relation to the band on that face thereof toward the other end of the buckle. The expansive force of the bale causes the buckle also to straighten out until it has acquired a limited elongation bringing the hooks into close locking relation to the band and further elongation is arrested, for the return or acute angle hooks effectively stop any furtherelonga tion of the buckle and Wholly prevent any possibility of the buckle opening or spread in and so releasing the band.

ddhat is claimed is z 1. A bale band buckle of loop form comprising an end bar, two sidebars, and two other end bars formed by extensions of the side bars and constituting the entering end of the buckle, the last-mentioned end bars being each substantiall equal in length to the first-mentioned end minating in aninwardl directed hook, and said last-mentioned en bars crossing each other in opposite directions'azt an angle one to the other so as to space the hooks a clistance apart greater than the Width of the band, whereby the tension exerted by the band on the crossed bars will cause the side bars to straighten out and the crossed bars to overlap and at the same time bring the hooks into locking engagement with the side edges of the band. p

:2. A bale band buckle of loop form comr prising an end bar, two sidebars, and two other end bars formed by extensions of the side bars and constituting the entering end of the buckle and each terminating in aninwardly directed or return hook, the side bars approaching toward the entering end bar ahd each teras i of the buckle into closer relation than the width of the bale band, and the second named end bars crossing each other in oppositedirections at an angle, with the-hooks spaced apart 'areater distance than the Width of the ban whereby the tension excited by the hand against the approaching portions of the side bars and upon the crossed bars will cause the 'side bars to straighten out and the crossed bars to overlap and at the samet-ime cause the hooks to approach to bring them into locking engagement with the side edges of the band and with the extremities of the hooks closer together than the width of the band.

' 3. A bale band buckle of loop form comprising an end bar, two side bars and two other end bars formed by extensions of the side bars and constitutin the entering end of the buckle, the side bars being curved onetoward the other as they approach the entering end of the buckle to there brin them into closer relation than the width 0 

